The housing market has slowed down in many areas that were booming in recent years. Vendors in those areas were spoiled. You just had to put a sign at the entrance and the buyers would come. Homes sold in a matter of days. This is no longer happening. If you want to sell your house in a slow zone, what do you do?

Back to Marketing Basics

Whether you’re selling your home yourself or working with a real estate agent, the answer is the same. Go back to the basics of marketing. We’ll look at things you can do yourself if you’re selling as fsbo (for sale by owner). If you’re talking to a real estate agent, you should interview to find one that does the kinds of things we’ll talk about here.

Start by leaving your home in pristine condition. So estimate realistically.

Start your marketing by putting up a “for sale” sign. About 10 percent of sales come from this source in a slow market. It’s not like the days when you put up a sign and the shoppers poured in, but it’s still worth doing. Lowes and Home Depot sell inexpensive signs. Get one and install it.

Upload your property to one or more Internet multiple listing sites for fsbo properties. Pick one that encourages adding photos to listings. The more photos the better. Buyers love images. Make sure the site doesn’t have a lot of listings that have already sold. Buyers are put off by sites where all the properties they call for have already been sold. Find a site that gives your property its own web address.

Don’t forget the lead in signs. These are signs indicating that there is a house for sale with arrows on them. They can be placed at intersections to point people on a busy street to the turns they need to make to get home. Lowes and Home Depot have them too.

Classified ads in your local newspaper are a good idea. You can include a reference to your online listing. That can give you more mileage from the images you uploaded.

Brochures are also a good idea. Place a box of brochures in front of your property and keep some inside for people who tour your house. You can probably print a suitable brochure from your internet list. If you’re good at it, you can make your own magazine-style brochure.

Brochures are useful in several ways. They make it easier for people who simply notice the sign or walk in by following the driveway signs to learn more about your property. If they like what they see, they can make an appointment to view your home in person. Make sure your brochure contains contact information, such as your phone number and perhaps your email address.

Brochures for people who visit your property will help them remember it. People looking for a house usually look at many properties. After a while they get confused about what they have seen. Your photo booklet will help them remember your home. That’s a good thing because people are unlikely to write a contract offer on a house they can’t quite remember.

Are there bulletin boards at work or at your place of worship? Post a one-page brochure or copies of your brochure if you can get permission. After all, the location of your home must be reasonably convenient to those places. What about the bulletin boards at the grocery store where you shop, at your dry cleaner, at the drug store you frequent?

The point is not to do just one thing. Use your head. Put up as many marketing ambassadors for your home as you can. The truth is, people don’t really sell houses. What they do is get the attention of enough people who are buying a home that a buyer inevitably emerges. Present your house to enough potential buyers and it will sell even in a slow market.